Haslam family

Gov. Bill Haslam’s daughter and her husband are buying “The Swag,” a 250-acre western North Carolina mountain inn and retreat currently owned by Haslam family friends, reports the News Sentinel.

David and Annie Haslam Colquitt will purchase the property from founders and longtime owners Dan and Deener Matthews… Annie Haslam Colquitt is the daughter of Gov. Bill Haslam and granddaughter of Pilot Flying J founder Jim Haslam. David, an attorney, left his job as a Pilot Flying J executive last month.

Nine Tennesseans are on Forbes’ 2018 list of the world’s richest people, including Gov. Bill Haslam, who the magazine had declared the nation’s richest politician prior to the election of President Donald Trump.

Trump is still ahead of Haslam in wealth — $3.1 billion of net worth to the governor’s $2.3 billion, by the Forbes estimate. That’s down a bit from last year for the president, who has declared Forbes underestimates his wealth. It’s unchanged for the governor, who has always refused to discuss the “private matter” of his fortune, based on the family-owned Pilot Flying J chain of gas stations.

Jimmy Haslam, the governor’s brother and CEO of Pilot, is listed with a net worth of $3.4 billion – ahead of the president as well as his brother.

A federal jury Thursday convicted the former president Pilot Flying J, the nation’s largest diesel fuel retailer, in a plot to rip off truckers to boost both his own bottom line and that of the company, reports the News Sentinel.

Former state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Rose has loaned his campaign for the 6th Congressional District Republican nomination $250,000, giving him a strong financial advantage over state Rep. Judd Matheny in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Diane Black, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission this week.

The reports show Rose, who owns a farm and runs a small business in DeKalb County, raised $292,450 in contributions and, with the $250,000 loan, his campaign had $542,450 in receipts. He reported $74,421 in expenditures, leaving a cash-on-hand balance of $468,038 on Oct. 1.

Matheny reported $166,544 in donations to his campaign and $62,458 in expenditures, leaving a cash balance of $104,086. He reported no loans.

Former Sen. Mae Beavers, now running for governor, and Breitbart News are making an issue of the Haslam family’s comments on the ongoing national anthem controversy in the National Football League. Beavers says Randy Boyd, one of her GOP primary opponents, should return any contributions received from the governor’s family.

The Haslam family, through Pilot Flying J and the Haslam Family Foundation, is giving $1.3 million to Knox County Schools’ marching bands and academics, reports the News Sentinel.

“The Haslam family is proud to call Knoxville both our home and the headquarters for our company,” Pilot Flying J Director of Giving Back Will Haslam said in the announcement. “When we think of school pride, we think of the marching bands and their dedication.”

An equal portion of the money will go to each of the district’s 13 high schools, pending acceptance Sept. 13 by the Knox County Schools Board of Education.

… Half of the $1.3 million, coming from Pilot Flying J, will buy band uniforms, instruments or other equipment, according to a news release. The other half, coming from the Haslam Family Foundation, will give $50,000 to each high school for “materials or activities that will enhance the academic experience and outcomes for students,” the announcement said.

… This donation follows a 2015 pledge of $10 million for artificial turf football fields at all 13 high schools, with construction running through 2018. That gift included $100,000 to each school for classroom improvements.

Pilot Flying J President Jimmy Haslam emerged Tuesday evening from a daylong deposition in a civil lawsuit over the firm’s alleged diesel fuel rebate scam with another denial of any role or knowledge of the fraud to which several subordinates have confessed.

Haslam, who also owns the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, was ordered by an Ohio judge to submit to questioning by attorneys representing three trucking

that Pilot struck with dozens of other such companies after a high-profile raid in April 2013 of the company’s headquarters in Knoxville and the resulting indictment of more than a dozen executives and employees, including former Pilot president Mark Hazelwood.

The deposition spanned eight hours and took place at a Pilot conference center in Alcoa. It was not public. Attorney Chip Cooper, who represents two of the trucking companies, said Haslam is shielding a transcript of the deposition from the public.

“Regrettably, we can’t discuss the substance of Mr. Haslam’s testimony today,” Cooper said. “We can’t discuss it because Mr. Haslam insisted that his testimony be sealed and therefore shielded from public view. We plan to address this with the court in Ohio, and we encourage the press to do the same.”

Both Haslam and his attorney A.B. Culvahouse issued a statement Tuesday evening lambasting the three trucking firms and vowing Haslam’s innocence. They did not address the shield request.

“Our client openly and truthfully answered their questions,” Culvahouse said. “This entire exercise today was nothing more than an effort by the plaintiffs to harass the company into a windfall settlement.”